Posted by Whistler                                                                                          730 words

I must be reading too much. Along with the article on colonialisms, I re-read an article on pirates that resonated with me and the thoughts I have been having about local government leaders. I am not suggesting that CEO’s are pirates but do we need our version of the pirate code?

In a fascinating article about piracy, written to investigate the ‘internal governance institutions of violent criminal enterprise by examining the law, economics, and organisation of pirates’, author Peter Leeson examines the ‘system of piratical checks and balances crews used to constrain captain predation’, and how pirates ‘used democratic constitutions to minimize conflict and create piratical law and order’.

It is a fascinating read. It started me thinking about the checks and balances in local government that constrain (or otherwise) the behaviour of the CEO.

‘To effectively organize their banditry, pirates required mechanisms to prevent internal predation, minimize crew conflict, and maximize piratical profit.

Captain predation didn’t just occur on pirate ships. Continue reading →